Archive for the ‘News’ Category

Israeli warplanes struck targets early Wednesday in the Gaza Strip in response to rocket fire toward southern Israel, the first air strikes launched by Israel since an informal cease-fire ended eight days of cross-border fighting between Israel and Hamas-ruled Gaza.

An Israeli military statement issued Wednesday said its planes targeted “two extensive terror sites” with “accurate hits.” Palestinian officials said no one was hurt in the air strikes and no damage was reported in northern Gaza.

The air raids followed the third successful rocket attack on Israel since the November cease-fire. The military reported that Gaza militants on Tuesday fired at least one rocket toward southern Israel. No one was hurt and no damage was caused. The attack was the first since rockets were fired during President Barack Obama’s visit to Israel two weeks ago.

Like this:

A Guantanamo detainee who allegedly revealed valuable information about 9-11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohamed is suing Poland in a European court.

Abu Zubaydah’s lawyers say he was held in a CIA black site in Poland, which they say has withheld critical information needed to investigate his case. He was allegedly held in Poland between 2002 and 2003.

Abu Zubaydah has been held by U.S. authorities for more than a decade without being charged and is now in a secret location at the U.S. prison camp. His lawyers say he was repeatedly subject to water-boarding — simulated drowning — by U.S. interrogators.

Like this:

POTTER TOWNSHIP, CENTRE COUNTY – Police have arrested a third person in connection with the murder of Samuel Boob.

Boob was shot and killed at his home in Potter Township, Centre County, on the morning of August 23rd, 2009.

Kermit Butts, 26, of Madisonburg, is accused of driving the suspected killer to and from the crime scene on the morning of the killing. He was charged with aggravated assault and assisting a murder suspect and placed in the Centre County Prison.Kermit Butts?

Like this:

As a commissioned officer in the military reserves, Paula Broadwell’s security clearance would be “secret” or “top secret,” which would allow her access to classified documents, according to military officials.

But exercising a security clearance depends on the type of job a person has, said the officials who spoke privately about the matter because Broadwell is entangled in an investigation of her ties to former CIA Director David Petraeus.

Related: Will scandal create national security risk?

She has been identified as his mistress. The affair forced the former four-star general to resign his post last week. She also co-authored a biography about him.

Related: Who might replace Petraeus at the CIA

As CNN first reported, her government security clearance was suspended pending the outcome of ongoing investigations, two U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the matter said.

Like this:

Easily the most dramatic sequence in a rather strong press conference performance today by President Barack Obama was his vehement defense of UN Ambassador Susan Rice against attacks by Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham.

Those two worthies said that they would go all out to prevent Rice’s confirmation by the Senate should Obama appoint her to replace Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. This due to Rice’s comments on a Sunday chat show about the Benghazi disaster several days after. Rice said then that the attack grew out of a protest against the notorious hate-Islam video Innocence of Muslims.

Obama was outraged by the McCain/Graham attacks on Rice.

“Let me say specifically about Susan Rice: She has done exemplary work. She has represented the U.S. and our interests in the U.N. with skill and professionalism and toughness and grace,” said Mr. Obama. “If Senator McCain and Senator Graham and others want to go after somebody, they should go after me. And I’m happy to have that discussion with them. But for them to go after the U.N. ambassador? Who had nothing to do with Benghazi? And was simply making a presentation based on intelligence that she had received? To besmirch her reputation is outrageous.”

Clearly Rice was wrong, and just as clearly the attack was simply that, an attack. Nobody brings machine guns and rocket launchers to a protest demonstration. And of course, it turns out that not only was the protest not simply a cover for the attack, it turns out that there was no protest at all.

Like this:

A man authorities say confessed to the infamous 1979 disappearance of a 6-year-old boy from his New York City neighbourhood has been formally charged with murder and kidnapping, a major milestone in a case that has stymied investigators and Etan Patz’s devoted family for decades.

The indictment against Pedro Hernandez, 51, was made public Wednesday and sets up a potential showdown at trial over whether prosecutors can convince a jury that his claim that he strangled the boy — a secret kept for more than 30 years — is credible.

The suspect’s attorney has argued that Hernandez is mentally ill and prone to hallucinations, and his confession can’t be trusted.